Thursday, October 11, 2012

My favorite fall memory "grandparents vineyard"

On 1st of October 2012, DevianArt launched a Diorama Contest which has to describe a favorite memory of the fall season experienced by the entrants. All the details can be found here: http://ayame-kenoshi.deviantart.com/art/Merrell-Diorama-Contest-330246127.....so I have a full month to come up with something very good and hopefully to be appreciated by the jury. First thing first I've found that beautiful memory and there it goes "my grandparents vineyard"....and I've started by doing some research on materials, on the objects design and so on. I will try to do everything from scratch and I hope there will be enough time for that.

The "wooden wagon" was the first object for this diorama and was made from cardboard of different thicknesses. Why cardboard and no balsa wood?...well its a matter of scale (1/35) and texture (porosity/grain).

I've made other objects as a barrel, strainer frame (I will add the wire mesh after painting the frame)...

...and there it is with a base of gray paint, ready for the coloring step...

Meanwhile I needed some sense of proportion and composition matter that is why next thing to do was the layout design...a bit messy, I know.......but c'mon, I'm on timer here...

The size of the diorama has to be the size of a standard shoebox (that's the rule)....so using some cardboard and foam I came up with the main relief shapes...

... from now on I will add bit by bit details as rocks and maybe some more relief for a better look...

...and yes, the layout is removable from the main box in order to have good access from any angle...\

Adding more texture and dead branches...

Next.. is to paint all the scene in black and then gray leaving some dark shadows from the black paint layer...

and then some earth colors...

vine props...

coloring the wooden wagon...

for trees I used wire and then I've glued some tissue paper on it...After drying I've brushed some white glue to add thickness...

....using some tips from Kampfgruppekitty I did some foliage for my fall trees and it came like this:

...adding grass is a booooring process :). I've used two or three types of painted rope...